


Enter Nick Fury

by Illusinia



Series: Darcy Stark Series [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-22
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-12 15:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/492706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusinia/pseuds/Illusinia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nick Fury first decides to get involved business wise with the Stark Household.</p>
<p>Part of the Darcy Stark Series</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enter Nick Fury

**Author's Note:**

> So, there is a piece that goes before this one but it isn't done and I don't want to forget about this piece, so here it is. Darcy is 3 at this point.
> 
> A quick note: Yes, Darcy is probably far too developed for a child of her approximate age. I know this. However, according to my Education professor, most of the children I've interacted with were far more developed for there age than they should have been so I don't really know what 'normal' is for a three year old. Beyond that, again, she's Tony Freakin' Stark's kid. Just a heads up about that.
> 
> Anyway, that's done. Enjoy everyone.

Nick Fury glanced at the address on the piece of paper in his hands, then up at the gate in front of him. According to his research, this was the primary residence of one Anthony Stark. Though not normally one to pay personal visits, the delicacy of his proposal made him anxious to take every available precaution. Which included avoiding any traceable means of communication.

 

Sliding out of his vehicle, Fury approached the gate with caution, both eyes scanning the area around and beyond the unassuming metal. Stark was a known loose cannon; it wouldn't be surprising to hear the man booby trapped his gate. Still, Fury could sign of an alarm as he examined the simple wrought iron fence work.

 

Lifting the latch, he waited for an alarm to sound but nothing came. No beeping or any other means of alerting the home's occupants of his intrusion.

 

_It may not be set in the middle of the day,_ thought Fury as he headed for the front door.

 

The front door was set back from the driveway down a not-entirely straight path. It lead to a door that looked to be made of frosted glass. Fury would bet good money that it was reenforced with something far sturdier. A faintly glowing button rested next to the door, which Fury pushed wearily. He also moved away very quickly so as to avoid being electrocuted or ambushed by any other nasty surprises.

 

Instead, there was a clicking of the locks on the door before it swung open to reveal....a toddler.

 

Fury blinked. There was a toddler answering Tony Stark's front door. Well, that was unexpected.  _Who the fuck would be crazy enough to leave their kid with Stark of all people?_

 

The little girl blinked up at him with dark blue eyes, tufts of chocolate brown hair falling hap-haphazardly around her head. “Can I help you?”

 

It was hard to keep his eyebrow from shooting up at her words. For such a young child, she was very well spoken. Instead, he knelt down so he was closer to her height but maintained a good distance for her comfort. And the comfort of anyone inside. “Maybe. Does a Tony Stark live here?”

 

“Yes,” confirmed the girl with a smile. “He's downstairs. Want me to get him?”

 

“Could you?” asked Fury gently. “I promise to wait right here while you do. I'll even shut the door for you.”

 

“It's okay, Mommy's here,” insisted the toddler just as a very worried and harrowed Pepper Potts came skidding around the corner of a hallway. Literally, she skidded. He'd never seen someone do that in four in heels before. The normally well-put-together woman look so worried, it was almost surreal. The little girl turned her head to grin at Pepper. “Mommy, this man is looking for-”

 

“I heard Darcy,” cut in Pepper quickly as she calmly strode the rest of the way to them. She knelt down as well, mindful of her skirt, and gently lay her hands on Darcy's shoulders. Fury caught the way her eyes briefly looked over her daughter, careful to ensure no harm had come to the child. Fury remained kneeling, recognizing the need to follow Pepper's lead. It would ensure she didn't just shut the door in his face. “Alright Darcy, go down to the workshop with Tony. I'll meet you down there in a bit, after I've spoken to our guest.”

 

“Yes Mommy,” agreed Darcy before she turned and practically bolted towards the hallway Pepper had just come out of. Pepper stood the moment Darcy was out of sight. 

 

Fury followed immediately. “I apologize if I over-stepped any boundaries.”

 

“It's alright,” dismissed Pepper. “You did nothing wrong. She shouldn't be answering the door.”

 

He felt a slight smile forming at the corner of his mouth. “They all do that. No fear at that age.”

 

“Agreed,” sighed Pepper as her eyes slid over him in an assessing manner that almost made him nervous. She looked almost like she was sizing him up as a threat. Which, he realized, she probably was. “So, may I ask your name and business?”

 

“Of course,” assured Fury as he fell into a lax stance to show he meant no harm. “My name is Nicolas Fury. I work for the US government.” One of his hands slid into his pocket, which caused Pepper to stiffen for a fraction of a second before he pulled out the leather fold containing his badge. He flipped open the case one-handed and held it out for her inspection.

 

One of her eyebrows rose a little as she noted the words 'National Security Agency' embossed across the top. “I see. And what business do you have with Mr. Stark?”  
  


“I'd like to discuss opening some contacts with Stark Industries,” explained Fury. “The National Security Agency is currently discussing the formation of a new branch called the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. S.H.I.E.L.D. for short.” 

 

Pepper nodded. “I've heard some rumors about a new branch being formed, though nothing concrete has been proven.”

 

“Nor will it ever be,” explained Fury. “S.H.I.E.L.D. will operate entirely in secret, unknown to the public.”

 

“This explains the covert visit, but not the reasons for the visit itself,” pointed out Pepper. He could tell she was weary, clearly not liking that she wasn't informed about his visit.

 

Fury gave her a sympathetic look. “I apologize for showing up like this, unannounced. However, please understand, this entire matter is still very much a secret.”

 

Pepper nodded. “Of course. I can understand the need for discretion. I still need some form of documentation other than your badge though.”

 

“If you didn't ask, I would be concerned,” returned Fury with a half smile as he extracted a thick pile of papers signed by the president from his coat.

 

A faint smirk touched Pepper's face. “The ink is still drying I see.”  
  


Fury nodded. “I hate to be rude, but is there any way we can continue this discussion inside?”  
  


“Yes, of course,” assured Pepper as she turned away from the door. “Jarvis, disarm your weapons and let our guest enter please.”

 

“Right away Pepper.”

 

Fury jumped a little with a quietly uttered 'motherfucker' as a disembodied voice echoed through the hallway. The whole place seemed more ominous now, especially when he spotted the last of several rather dangerous looking weapons fold back into the wall. “Jarvis?”

 

“He's an AI,” explained Pepper. “Jarvis monitors the house and grounds, ensuring there are no threats to Mr. Stark's safety.”

 

“I see,” commented Fury mildly. A faint smile crossed his face. “I don't suppose Darcy had anything to do with Jarvis.” Though he couldn't see Pepper's face, he noted the way she stiffened and quickly explained. “I have a daughter of my own. She's fourteen now, but I remember the days of worry when she was Darcy's age.”

 

Pepper's shoulders relaxed a little and she peered over her shoulder to nod at him. “It's a bit nerve-wracking at times. Sometimes, I swear she's smarter than all of us.”

 

Fury allowed a chuckle to escape as he relaxed more. “They are. Never doubt that for a minute. Though I must say, and please don't take this the wrong way, but she doesn't really look like you.”

 

“Good eye,” admitted Pepper with a touch of a smile. “I adopted her when she was an infant.”

 

For a moment, Fury thought about making a comment about how much Darcy looked like Tony. However, the matter felt too personal and he could just imagine how hard both Tony and Pepper had to be working to keep that piece of information out of the press circuits. He hadn't heard anything about Tony having a child, a difficult thing to hide. Plus he understood all too well the drive to keep one's child safe, especially a girl.

 

“It shows,” commented Fury instead. “She was very polite at the door.”

 

There's a faint twitch of Pepper's lips as her smile grows. “That's because you managed to miss some of her more...Tony personality quirks.”

 

Fury nodded as he took at seat on the couch, per Pepper's gesture. “She spends a lot of time with him then?”

 

“More than you'd imagine,” confirmed Pepper as she gathered some bottled water from a cabinet before joining him. “Despite his...boisterous personality, he's good with Darcy and she really seems to enjoy his company.”

 

“It's never a bad idea to allow a child to interact with intelligent people,” remarked Fury. “Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get down to business.”

 

 

Half an hour later, Pepper stood from the couch with Fury, the pile of contract's he wished to give to Stark Industries in her hands. “Well, everything appears to be in order. I'm certain that Mr. Stark would be more than willing to speak with you about these contracts. Please, follow me.”

 

Fury nodded, following Pepper as she led him down a stairwell off the living room and into a small hall which ended in the large glass doors and wall that looked into Tony Stark's workshop. He could just see the man bent over a workbench with a wielding torch in his hand. Darcy sat on the floor to his left, playing with some kind of device she appeared to be taking apart.

 

“Is she supposed to be doing that?” asked Fury, pointing to Darcy as she unscrewed something with a dexterity that no 3-year-old should have.

 

Pepper groaned and marched up to the door, keying her way in. The music, which had been playing at a surprisingly low level, shut off immediately. “Tony!”

 

Tony looked up and turned off his torch, flipping up the wielders mask with a faint smirk. “Hey Pep, finished with our guest already?”

 

“Actually, I brought him down to talk with you,” replied Pepper, irritation present in her voice as she handed him the stack of papers. “Why is Darcy playing with your breakfast robot?”  


“Huh?” asked Tony, glancing down at where Darcy sat on the floor. She had the back off the device and had removed most of the basic internal parts. Tony frowned. “Darcy, where'd you get that?”

 

Darcy looked up at Tony, blinking wide blue eyes at him. “You gave it to me to play with.”

 

Tony blinked back, brow furrowing in confusion. “When?”

 

“After I took apart the old telephone,” replied Darcy. “About ten minutes ago.”

 

Both of Fury's eyebrows shot up in surprise. “She can tell time already?”

 

Pepper nodded with a sigh. “She most likely picked it up from me telling Tony how long he had before he needed to leave.”

 

“I only know five, ten, and thirty minutes,” informed Darcy, her eyes sliding up to Fury's. “I don't know the others yet.”

 

Fury smiled at the little girl and nodded. “I'm sure you'll learn them soon. You seem very smart for your age.”

 

“Genius,” replied Darcy with a grin before something on the ground twitched next to her. Her eyes shot down and she carefully picked up an egg beater she'd apparently taken off the device. It was attached to an arm-like limb. “Huh. It's moving.”

 

Pepper groaned again and scooped up Darcy from the floor. “Alright sweetheart, that's enough. Why don't we leave Tony and Mr. Fury to talk about business, hm?”

 

“Okay,” replied Darcy, her head turning to look at Fury again. “Bye-bye Mr. Fury.”

 

Fury smiled and nodded at her. “You can call me Nick. Have a good day Darcy. Miss. Potts, I'm assuming I'll see you again shortly.”

 

Pepper nodded and exited the room with Darcy in her arms, leaving Fury and Tony alone in the room together. Tony cocked an eyebrow at the other man, who turned appraising eyes on the genius. For a moment, neither spoke as each waited for the other to make a move.

 

Tony got bored first. “So what's this business stuff Pepper wants me to indulge in?”

 

“Military contracts for a few new devices,” replied Fury, nodding to the papers that Tony held. “Miss Potts explained that you only accept contracts you find interesting. I'm hoping these will be appealing.”

 

“They're unique,” admitted Tony, who was already flipping through the sheaf of paper. “What do you need a hover craft for?”

 

Fury smiled slightly. “A base of operations.”

 

Tony nodded and tosses the papers on his work bench. “Eh, doesn't look completely boring. What's the time limit?”

 

“As soon as you can,” replied Fury, eying the way Tony was already back to playing with his blow torch.

 

“Right.” The distraction in Tony's tone indicated that he was already moving on to whatever he'd been working on. “Tell Pep I accept and have her draw everything up. She's good at that.”

 

Fury nodded. “Apparently she's an expert genius wrangler.”

 

“She's got two that need wrangling,” confirmed Tony just before the deafening noise from the blow torch started up again.

 

Fury took this as a sign he wouldn't get any more responses out of Tony and left. Normally, he would never allow himself to be ignored, but he wanted his contracts filled, damn it. Sacrifices had to be made. It would all change later, once everything was off the ground.

 

Pepper and Darcy were sitting in the living room when Fury emerged from the basement. Whatever was in Darcy's hands now looked far safer than what she had been playing with downstairs, though Fury still wasn't sure what it was. Possibly something mechanical, but with larger pieces.

 

Upon seeing him, Pepper offered a smile and stood. Darcy continued to play with whatever she was doing, apparently ignoring or missing the fact that her mother was no longer next to her.  _ Definitely Stark's kid. _

 

“Everything settled?” asked Pepper, voice low to keep from drawing Darcy's attention.

 

Fury nodded and dropped his voice as well. “Stark's agreed to the contracts. He said to ask you to draw up the paperwork.”

 

“Of course,” agreed Pepper. “I can send it over tomorrow discretely if you can give me an address of some kind. Alternatively, I can bring the paperwork by myself if need be.”  


“I'd prefer if you would deliver the paperwork,” admitted Fury. “Security and all that.” Digging a card out of his pocket, he offered it to Pepper. “This is my office. I'll let security know to expect you. Alternatively, if you could call before hand, that would be helpful.”

 

“That's easily doable,” assured Pepper. “I'll have everything ready by tomorrow afternoon.”

 

“Perfect, I'll be expecting you.” Fury offered Pepper his extended hand, shaking her smaller one gently before reaching back into his briefcase and extracting a flier. “By the way, I don't know how comfortable you are with this, but this might come in handy at some point.”

 

Pepper's brow furrowed a little as she took the bright flier, advertising a teenage babysitter. “I'm afraid I don't understand.”

 

Fury tapped the name on the flier, listing a Abigail Fury as the advertised babysitter. “In case you ever need to get out. Or don't want to leave you daughter with Mr. Stark.”

 

One of Pepper's eyebrows rose as his message dawned on her. “I see. Does she know how to use a fire extinguisher?”

 

“Yes,” confirmed Fury. “She's also proficient in multiple forms of martial arts, discrete about her clientele, and fully trained on how to do everything from getting a picky child to eat to disarming live bombs.”

 

“Both of which are possible in this house,” sighed Pepper. “Thank you, Agent Fury.”

 

“Anytime Miss Potts,” assured Fury with a nod in her direction. He waved at Darcy as he walked out the door, noting how the little girl waved back happily.

 

\------------------------

 

_A week later..._

 

“Fury,” greeted Fury as he answered the kitchen phone, shoving it between his ear and shoulder as he attempted to continue stirring the cookie dough he was working on. A little splattered over the rim and for what had to be the tenth time that day, he was grateful for the pink apron his wife had insisted he wear.

 

Across the room at the kitchen counter, his daughter Abby was working to roll out a sheet of dough they'd already finished and cut out the appropriate shapes, crimped hair pulled into a tight pony tail and brown eyes focused on the task at hand. His wife, Melissa, was seated beside Abby, a cup of coffee in her hand. She smiled softly as she watched Abby work, making gentle suggestions every now and then.

 

“Nicky?” asked the all too familiar (and what Fury was beginning to suspect would become quickly annoying) voice of Tony Stark. “Hey, I'm lookin' for that babysitter who's flier you gave Pep. Uh...Abigail?”Fury noted the sound of crinkling paper in the background.

 

“She's here, hang on,” replied Fury with a bit of a scowl as he stopped stirring for a moment to motion Abby over.

 

Abby slid off her stool quickly, taking the phone from her father's shoulder and pressing it to her own ear. “Hello?”

 

Fury moved away a little after that, trying to give Abby some privacy to speak with Mr. Stark. He could guess what the call was about. He just hoped that Tony would be professional.

 

“No sir, I never discuss anything about my clients with anyone,” confirmed Abby, serious professional face on. The smear of flour across her forehead didn't help with that, nor did the remnants of dough stuck beneath her finger nails. She nodded her head a few times, making little humming noises before she spoke again. “Yes sir, I'm well versed in the use of fire extinguisher's. No, I do not rattle easily. Sir, with all due respect, my father was showing me the proper way to throw hand grenades when I was 10. Explosions do not bother me.” She fell silent after that, broken only by the occasional 'uh-huh' which she offered to show she was still listening. Finally, she nodded again and grabbed a piece of paper to scribble down some numbers before shifting to hold the phone again. “Yes sir, I can be there Friday night. Yes, of course. Thank you, sir.” With that Abby hung up the phone and pinned the piece of paper to the fridge while shaking her head in disbelief. “That has to be the strangest babysitter interview I've had yet.”

 

“Can't expect much more from Mr. Stark,” pointed out Fury gently as Abby wondered back over to continue rolling out the dough.

 

Melissa raised a casual eyebrow at first her daughter, then her husband. “Mr. Stark, as in Anthony Stark?”

 

“Correct,” confirmed Fury. The look of concern Melissa gave him prompted him to quickly reassure her. “Darcy is a sweetheart, don't worry Mel.”

 

Abby looked up at her father with a quirked eyebrow. “You've met her?”

 

“Yes,” assured Fury as he dumped the dough on the counter to kneed it. “She's more like Pepper than Tony, but she is a genius and will probably try to get into some trouble.”

 

Abby nodded slowly. “I wouldn't expect anything less from any child exposed to Tony Stark. What was she doing when you were there?”

 

“Deconstructing something that Pepper referred to as Tony's 'breakfast robot',” replied Fury. At Abby's raised eyebrow, Fury shrugged. “I didn't ask. You will have to keep anything you see in that house confidential though, you know that right Abs?”

 

“No Dad, I thought I could tell everyone that I was babysitting Tony Stark's kid,” replied Abby with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. “Which reminds me, when the hell did Stark of all people have a kid and how has this not made the news yet?”

 

Fury shrugged. “I'd guess three years ago, but it's hard to tell. She's far better spoken than I would have guessed a child could be, but again she's Stark's kid so...”

 

“...it's hard to say how much more advanced she might be from others her age,” finished Abby with a nod. “It makes sense. What I'm wondering is how they kept it a secret. And is Pott's her mom? 'Cause Mr. Stark kept mentioning Pepper in conjunction with Darcy and, well, it's kinda hard to tell.”

 

“Pepper adopted Darcy when she was an infant,” replied Fury. “She doesn't look anything like Pepper really, but she looks a lot like Tony. My advice though is not to ask too many questions. You're there to watch Darcy, so only ask questions relevant to your job.”

 

“I can do that,” assured Abby as she began cutting out cookies. “So, wait, if Tony's her dad and Pepper adopted her, does that mean that Tony and Pepper are-”

 

Melissa cleared her throat at that point, cutting off Abby's question. “Need I remind you both that family cookie night is about leaving work at work and focusing on being a normal family?”

 

“Sorry Mom,” apologized Abby with a bit of a sheepish look.

 

Fury just gave Melissa a smile and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Sorry Mel, we'll be good.”

 

“Good,” huffed Melissa with a grin. “I'd hate to have to eat all these cookies by myself.”


End file.
